PART 1 Summary

When Musk and SpaceX employees were on the verge of breakdown, the fourth launch of Falcon1 got off the ground on September 28, 2008. Albeit having achieved this mammoth victory, SpaceX struggled to make its payroll.

Catching wind of Tesla's financial conundrum, the press pilloried Musk by cluing the public about the defeats of Roadster and Eberhard's grievance towards Musk. However, what really tortured Musk was not the flooding of schadenfreude or finger-pointing. At the peak of the financial fiasco, Musk was bogged down in a dilemma to choose between SpaceX and Tesla. In that stint, Musk was consumed with the efforts to court investors, coaxing them to ramp up the investment while wagering all his personal funds on Tesla. VantagePoint Capital Partners deviously stiffed Musk on the investment, wishing to benefit from the ramification. Once again, Musk didn't buckle and pulled Tesla back from the brink of bankruptcy. The companies finally weathered the crisis after SpaceX struck a big-ticket contract with NASA.

The remarks from Musk's friend, Gracias was spot-on. The success of Musk could be chalked up to his stamina and ability to stay unflappable under pressure, which made him way ahead of the curve.

Elon Musk

PART 2 Expressions

All told, the cargo weighed 375 pounds.

all told: altogether, when everyone or everything has been counted

There must have been eight cars in the accident, all told.

Musk put up a positive front to the public as well.

put on/ show/ present a ...front: (hide feelings) behave in a way that is happier, braver etc than you really feel

Jenny didn't want Adam to see how worried she was. So she put on a brave front.

His arrogance is just a front. Deep down he's really insecure.

When disciplining children, it is important that parents present a united front.

Earlier in the day, Musk had tried to distract himself from the mounting pressure by going to Disneyland with his brother Kimbal and their children.

In December 2008, Musk mounted simultaneous campaigns to try to save his companies.

mounting: gradually increasing- often used about things that cause problems or trouble

There was mounting pressure on him to resign.

They faced mounting debts.

The government has come under mounting criticism in the press.

(v.) Tension here is mounting, as we await the final result.

第二句中的mount: to organize an event or a course of action

mount a campaign/ challenge/ search etc:

mount an assault/ attack

Guerrillas have mounted an attack on the capital.

In the meantime, SpaceX simply struggled to make its payroll.

1. the activity of managing salary payments for workers in a company

2. the total amount of wages paid to all the people working in a particular company or industry

on the payroll: if sb is on the payroll of a company, they are employed by that company

The company now has 350 people on the payroll.

payroll tax: a tax that is taken from sb's wages and given directly to the government = income tax

There was a lot of schadenfreude at the time, and it was bad on so many levels.

['ʃɑ:dnfrɔɪdə] (n.) 幸灾乐祸

a feeling of pleasure that you get when something bad happens to sb else

He seemed like a man on the brink.

on the brink of disaster/ war etc: in a situation when you are almost in a new situation, usually a bad one

The company had huge debts and was on the brink of collapse.

to the brink of sth

managers who have taken their companies to the brink of disaster

back from the brink of sth

He will go down in history as the leader who pulled us back from the brink(=saved us from disaster).

To give the investors some measure of confidence, Musk made a last-ditch effort to raise all the personal funds he could and put them into the company.

a last-ditch attempt/ effort etc: a final attempt to achieve sth before it is too late

The negotiators made a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement.

Musk had cobbled together $20 million, and asked Tesla’s existing investors—since no new investors materialized—to match that figure.

to happen or appear in the way that you expected

Problems were expected, but they never materialized.

The money we had been promised failed to materialize.

Salzman balked and told Musk to come in the following week at 7A.M. to present to VantagePoint’s top brass.

informal, people in positions of high rank in a company, or in the army, navy etc

The top brass are coming in from Washington to see how we do things here.

The meeting was attended by top diplomats and military top brass.

Maybe they’re used to a CEO buckling, but Elon doesn’t do that.

buckle:

1. if your knees or legs buckle, they become weak and bend

John felt his knees start to buckle.

2. SYN give in, do sth that you do not want to do because a difficult situation forces you to do it

buckle under the pressure/ strain/ weight

He refused to  buckle.

A weaker person would have buckled under the weight of criticism.

He saw a man who arrived in the United States with nothing, who had lost a child, who was being pilloried in the press by reporters and his ex-wife and who verged on having his life’s work destroyed.

pillory: (n.) 颈首架；（v.）将...套上颈首架示众

be pilloried: be publicly criticized by a lot of people, especially in newspapers etc

The education secretary was pilloried by the press for his latest proposals.

PART 3 Thoughts

The blog took special pleasure in rejecting the idea that Musk was a true founder of the company, presenting him as the moneyman and chairman who had more or less stolen Tesla from the genius engineer Eberhard.

“He has the ability to work harder and endure more stress than anyone I‘ve ever met," Gracias said. "What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn't just survive. He kept working and stayed focused."

曾在知乎上看到过一句话，“人习惯地讲自己的成功归因于自身，失败归因于环境；而将他人的成功归因于环境，失败归因于自身。”  Elon的成功虽然有运气的成分，但更是因为他有着常人所难以做到的坚持和乐观。人们大多喜欢追逐那些成功者的光环，却很少去揭示那些光环背后的辛酸。另一方面，当那些被众人仰望的”神“陷入困境的时候往往会成为众矢之的。诚然人无完人，但我们也不会因其一时的得失成败而采取迥然不同的态度。《论语》中有”择其善者而从中，其不善者而改之。“懂得看到别人的优点、借鉴别人的经验教训是自我前进的第一步。